They are more than just "an army", they are in a monkish order protecting their people and isle from annihilation. They are overzealous about their task not "noble defenders of the light" but th only protectors of pandaria, patrolling night and day their wall and fighting shas and mogus everywhere it is needed.

They aren't paragon of virtue, they just do what need to be done.

If the majority of the pandaren are living in peace and beer, it's because the pandashan are protecting them.

Allow me to start by saying that I have ALWAYS been a supporter of MoP since MMO-Champion first talked about how Blizzard had trademarked the name and it would likely be an expansion. I love the story, the feel of the zones, the dungeons and scenarios, et cetera.

But lately I can't help it but to have the feeling Blizz is just trying to overcompensate for the fact that people might perceive MoP as childish. I'm not talking about how the war is not pretty, or how evil the thunder king is. I'm talking about the pandaren themselves. It kind of started on Li Li's shortstories where we saw her drinking beer even though she's a kid, but the new "The Trial of the Red Blossoms" shortstory just blows away any notion that the pandaren were ever a peaceful and loving race of zen people we had since the pandaren were first introduced. Let's take a look at what happens:

The Story is about a 14 year-old cub named Ten. He is a starving orphan who became a thief to survive;

Ten mistakes the shado-pan for rich farmers and tries to steal from them. what he thought was something valuable was actually just a scroll.

1 - Forced Labor to pay for his crimes of being a hungry child who steals to survive;

2 - he'd be bound, have his eyes, feet and most fingers removed from his body, he'd be taken to the monastery, tortured and than thrown to his death in a canyon;

Ten tricks the shado-pan into thinking he escaped. Hawkmaster Nurong appears and, impressed by his actions, gives him 2 more options:

3 - Painless death;

4 - Facing the Trial of the Red Blossoms to try to join the shado-pan;

Ten chooses option 4 and Nurong gives him 3 months to reach the monastery in the tallest mountain in the world. it was the middle of winter and the boy barely had any clothes. he does manage to barely arrive in the time he's given;

There were 12 other cubs there to take the trial. One of them was 3 years younger than Ten. Two of them gave up before the start of the trials, and they would never be given another chance at joining the shado-pan;

The first trial was given by Yalia Sagewhisper. she made them fall into the lake (in the tallest mountain, in the middle of the winter), run out of the lake, grab a coin inside a lit brazier (under the coal), than go back and give the coin to her. out of the 10 cubs (children), 6 died frozen in the lake;

The next trial was given by Master Snowdrift. He locked the remaining cubs in a room with some very heavy bells. they had to lift and ring the bells to pass. under one bell there was a poisonous snake. under another bell there was a tiger, and under the third one there were weapons for them to defend themselves. All who survived the trial would pass;

One cub is bitten by the snake and dies;

The tiger was actually carrying sha (it was a trap from the mantid). the kids cooperated and killed the sha;

"You think I have never taken a beating, monster? Just last season I was whipped by a butcher for stealing his garbage, and by a blacksmith for warming my paws at his forge."

The kids were accepted in the Shado-pan and they all lived happily ever after. except for the children who died. and their families;

So, are we supposed to admire and fight side by side with people who lock children in a room with a tiger and a snake just to see how many of them survive? After reading this shortstory I sincerely wish I could go at war with the Shado-pan and farm them endlessly all the way to hated. "Sword in the Shadows"? "Protectors of Pandaria"? My ass! They are nothing but murderers.

- OP, Your post is subjective and you obviously a deeper understand of story structure and just see things at face value

- Poster above this one, you do the same just in another way.

All this is subjective and how you decide to look at it, because blizzard will always make points in story about controversy. An orc raiding party attacks an alliance group and kills them in the barrens, alliance think they are evil. Yet a week before those same humans burned one of those orcs farms down because it was in there way and killed his family, so the humans are evil. Both sides kill one another, and this retarded subjective opinionation carries on.

I so often get bored of AvsH discussions, that its now spilling over into other aspects of lore and players form subjective opinions of it.

Nothing, nothing beats torturing a blue dragonflight mage in Borean Tundra to force him to talk. And you're the one administering the torture, while a Kirin-tor mage incites you, saying the blue mage would have done worst to you.

I still find that particular quest disturbing.

Back on topic: the Shadopan are sociopaths. From Taoshi taunting mantids as she backstabs them, to their interaction talk: We serve, so others don't have to. I.E.: we have a ruthless, heartless job.

There's a quest (presumably Alliance only) in Deepholm where you torture an orc on the airship to force him to tell you where the missing pillar is. The most disturbing part is after, where he gets thrown into the ship motor and you can see his remains flying in the air.

Nothing, nothing beats torturing a blue dragonflight mage in Borean Tundra to force him to talk. And you're the one administering the torture, while a Kirin-tor mage incites you, saying the blue mage would have done worst to you.

There's a quest (presumably Alliance only) in Deepholm where you torture an orc on the airship to force him to tell you where the missing pillar is. The most disturbing part is after, where he gets thrown into the ship motor and you can see his remains flying in the air.

You obviously have never levelled an Alliance.
For one, it's an Ogre, not an Orc. Also, he's a member (high-ranking at that) of the Twilight's Hammer. After feigning him out (the "torturer" actually had wind elementals ready to catch him should he fall, it was all just a huge bluff) he chooses to jump into the engine (he's not thrown by anyone) rather than be found out by the Cult as a traitor.

I was rather surprised at how cruel the Shado-pan's punishments could be. Seems like some aspects of Mogu rule die hard...

---------- Post added 2013-02-20 at 07:23 AM ----------

Originally Posted by NeverStop

There's a quest (presumably Alliance only) in Deepholm where you torture an orc on the airship to force him to tell you where the missing pillar is. The most disturbing part is after, where he gets thrown into the ship motor and you can see his remains flying in the air.

It's an Earthen Ring quest, both factions can do it, it's not an Orc, it's an Ogre-Mage of the Twilight's Hammer, and he doesn't get thrown into the motor, he wriggles free of the gryphon and commits suicide rather than live to experience the punishment the Twilight's Hammer would've given him for talking about their presence and activities in Deepholm. Way to completely misrepresent everything in that quest in a clear attempt to smear the Alliance...

Of course they're trying too hard, but at the end of the day being bidden to take Pandaren seriously and indeed, making them serious, seems about as reasonable to me as the cast of Game of Thrones consisting of clowns and jesters and likewise being told to take it just as seriously.

"A writer who says that there are no truths, or that all truth is 'merely relative,' is asking you not to believe him. So don't." - Roger Scruton

Originally Posted by Wells

I see no point in compelling integration. If you can't make your society sufficiently enticing to integrate willingly, then perhaps its not so superior.

I was rather surprised at how cruel the Shado-pan's punishments could be. Seems like some aspects of Mogu rule die hard...

---------- Post added 2013-02-20 at 07:23 AM ----------

It's an Earthen Ring quest, both factions can do it, it's not an Orc, it's an Ogre-Mage of the Twilight's Hammer, and he doesn't get thrown into the motor, he wriggles free of the gryphon and commits suicide rather than live to experience the punishment the Twilight's Hammer would've given him for talking about their presence and activities in Deepholm. Way to completely misrepresent everything in that quest in a clear attempt to smear the Alliance...

I remember that quest, it is somewhat a copy of the wrath quest though where the crusader dude jumped of the hill and killed himself.

Time...line? Time isn't made out of lines. It is made out of circles. That is why clocks are round. ~ Caboose

just cause two incidents have a enemy member kill themselves doenst make them "somewhat a copy", they're similar because they share the same reasoning. members of ruthless factions tend to do that rather than face their sordid faith (even if they dont confess, their side ussually finishes them off just to be sure).

As anyone who's actually bothered reading the short story will notice, the OP is slightly biased in his summary.Correction, they give him the following choices :

1 - Giving back the stolen scroll to prove that he's not an agent of the mantid, so that the Shado-Pan can then hand him over to the village council who will probably give the little thief community service for his larceny habits;

2 - Refusing to give back the scroll, which would confirm to them that he is a spy likely corrupted by the sha, forcing them to take much more drastic measures to foil the plan of his nefarious masters.

It sure doesn't sound as gratuitous when you put it in the Shado-Pan's perspective, eh ?

Wow...OP surely is bent on making the only pandaren force that's kept the lands east of the Wall safe for thousands of years, look Garrosh-ed.

The kids were disposable, trash and orphans, they would've died in a couple of years anyway. And Shado-Pan aren't trained by pillow-fights. However, too much focus on nasty stuff at once, that's an overkill.

"A NAME IS A CLOAK OF LETTERS THROWN UPON A MAN. IT MEANS NOTHING." - Transcendent One, Planescape: Torment.

A much needed saving grace for the Pandaren if you ask me.
Most of Pandaria has felt like helping out innocent, friendly farmers against vermin or spiders or other pests.
Which after facing all the horrible things we have faced in previous expansions felt like a real slap in the face similiar to the Nagrand quest for berries..

But this balances things out, a much needed yang to the otherwise very ying race.